Tulevaisuuswiki / Työn tulevaisuus
Lifetime Earnings + Fun
Also known as LEF, Elinikäiset ansiot ja mielekkyys
Lifetime Earnings + Fun (LEF) is the informal name of the allocation objective used by AI Work Matching in the Jobi Economy. Instead of maximizing a participant's current income, the system seeks to maximize the participant's expected lifetime earnings together with the subjective quality of the work required to achieve them. The objective was codified in the Act on Algorithmic Work Allocation of 2032, whose Finnish text refers to "lifetime earnings and meaningfulness" (elinikäiset ansiot ja mielekkyys). The informal English name is in general use; the formal mathematical specification is published as an annex to the Act.
Components
Earnings
Optimizing for immediate income can lead to poor long-term outcomes: a participant may earn more today by repeating a familiar task while forgoing a skill that would substantially raise future earnings. LEF therefore treats skills as human capital in which it is rational to invest. This principle is the basis of Paid Learning.
Fun
The system also models individual preferences. Two equally productive workers may strongly prefer different kinds of work. Conventional labour markets typically discover such preferences slowly, through resignations, absenteeism and low job satisfaction. AI Work Matching attempts to identify them before work is assigned, estimating from repeated choices a participant's preferences regarding:
- social interaction;
- repetition;
- physical activity;
- working environment;
- autonomy;
- novelty;
- level of challenge.
Enjoyment is measured through participants' post-task ratings and inferred from subsequent choices.
Exploration
The system does not only recommend activities a participant is known to enjoy. A small proportion of recommendations deliberately test uncertain preferences and are presented with explanations such as "You have not done this before; people with similar profiles tend to enjoy it." Such exploratory recommendations account for a significant share of new occupational specializations in the Jobi Economy.
Trade-offs
Lifetime earnings and enjoyment frequently conflict. Rather than resolving all conflicts automatically, the system presents participants with explicit trade-offs, allowing them to prioritize higher income, greater enjoyment, faster skill development, shorter working time or greater variety. In practice LEF therefore functions less as a single universal objective than as a continuously adjusted personal one.
Criticism
Economists have argued that "fun" is not a sufficiently rigorous welfare measure and that self-reported enjoyment is vulnerable to manipulation by the system that measures it. Philosophers have questioned whether an allocation system should optimize for enjoyment at all, rather than for autonomy or social contribution. Supporters respond that the objective is explicit, published and adjustable by each participant, in contrast to the implicit objectives of conventional employers.